【Hawaii Travel Blog】Dole Plantation

August 25, 2016

The Dole Food Company is the world’s largest producer of fruit and vegetable. Mr James Dole opened the first pineapple plantation on the island of Oahu in 1901. Nowadays, the iconic Dole logo has become synonymous of pineapples worldwide.

When I was researching our itinerary, Dole Plantation was under my “skip if no time” column due to my fear of it being a tourist trap. Turned out, I probably should have skipped it.

This was my first time seeing a pineapple on pineapple plant! So cute, it almost looked like a lollipop. This was found near the ticket booth (in the free area).

We thought we would join a maze tour or express train tour while we were there. We waited almost 20 minutes in line only to be told that…”You wouldn’t be able to see any pineapples in the garden now. Do you still want to join the tour?” Well, thanks but no thanks! You didn’t think to put a sign up or something…?

Since there were no pineapple fields to see, we went back in the visitor centre, which was basically a supersize souvenir shop filled with random Hawaiian souvenirs.

We made it to a free pineapple cutting demonstration. This lady was showing us how to pick the perfect pineapple – in short, look at the shapes of the diamond pattern (the more similar the patterns are the better) , smell the pineapple (fermented smell or overly strong smell signals it’s overripe) and the leaf (the firmer the better).

Li hing powder? I didn’t know Hawaiians use li hing powder the same way as Taiwanese on sour-ish fruits.

The verdict: Hands down the best pineapple that I had ever eaten! The sweetness, fragrance and juice danced and lingered in my mouth. I could eat the whole pineapple!

Of course, we wouldn’t miss the chance to try the famous Dole Whip.

We ordered the Waffle Cone (USD $5.95) which came with a pineapple stick that was taken from the middle part of a pineapple.

If you like fruity ice cream, you will absolutely love this. The only thing that puzzled me was… the regular Dole Whip was more expensive than the regular Dole Whip I saw at a downtown convenience store in Waikiki. I found it ridiculous because then what’s the point of coming all the way to the home of Dole Plantation if you’re gonna charge me more for the same thing?

Food menu at Dole Plantation.

We loved the pineapple so much that we were tempted to bring a whole pineapple home. However, the thought of having to cut it and finish the whole thing in the next day stopped us. We ended up buying a takeaway box of cut pineapple from the fridge, which we nibbled on throughout the day, nom nom.